Meeting youth needs: The importance of incorporating adolescent and young adult perspectives in food insecurity screening and interventions

While much of the literature has focused on households with young children, data have shown that adolescents were twice as likely to report food insecurity as young children, as the latter are often shielded from food insecurity by their parents. Increasingly, health-care systems are integrating interventions to screen for and assist patients with food insecurity, including with the use of Food is Medicine (FIM) interventions that include produce prescriptions, medically tailored groceries, medically tailored meals, and referrals to the federal nutrition programs. Despite the promise of FIM interventions, few studies have focused on developing and testing FIM interventions among adolescents and young adults with their perspectives in mind. A new study by Hill et al. is one of the few to explore adolescent and young adults' perspectives regarding food insecurity screening in clinical settings and a produce prescription intervention.